Middleware Eases Database Consolidation

New middleware from ANTs software enables organizations to
re-host applications from Sybase databases to Oracle databases with
minimal to no rewriting or recompiling.

Database consolidation may have just got a little easier, according to
officials at ANTs Software.
Roughly a year after demonstrating the technology at the Independent Oracle
Users Group Collaborate 2007 conference in Las Vegas, the company has launched Version
1.5 of ACS (ANTs Compatibility Server),
middleware designed to reduce the time and effort required to consolidate
disparate databases.

The idea, company officials said, is to allow application code-queries,
stored procedures and functions-from legacy databases to run natively and
transparently against the new target database without requiring applications to
be rewritten or recompiled. For now, the product enables organizations to
re-host their Sybase
database applications to an Oracle database with minimal to no application
changes, according to company officials.

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The Sybase applications run natively on the ACS,
which connects natively to the target Oracle database. The application operates
as if it were still communicating with the original database, while the new
Oracle database operates as if it were communicating with a native application.
Current migration tools, such as OMWB (Oracle Migration Workbench), automate
a portion of the migration but still require manual application rewriting, ANTs
officials contend. Together, OMWB and the ANTs Compatibility Server provide a
fully automated process-eliminating costly rewrites and accelerating the entire
process while reducing cost, officials said.
Due to the rising amount of data and costs of data management, database
consolidation has become a top priority for many enterprises.
"Oracle database consolidation with the ANTs Compatibility Server provides
an excellent opportunity to reduce data management costs and execute projects
with positive ROI," said Cesar Rojas, senior director of marketing.
"Customers save by using a migration method that is 50 to 75 percent less
expensive than manual application rewrite and also save by moving to Oracle and
fully leveraging an Oracle Enterprise License Agreement that eliminates
operational redundancy and cost inefficiencies."
SQL Server and other databases are on the company's engineering road map and
will be announced in the future, Rojas said.